Sign up for the Daily Skimm and congratulate yourself on a job well done

We’re just a liiiittle excited that you're here. We’ll be in your
inbox bright and early tomorrow AM. Unless it’s the weekend, in which case,
see you on Monday. If you just can't wait,
here's our latest Skimm
to tide you over.

RAIDING BETWEEN THE LINES

The Story

Remind me who that is.

Manafort was President Trump's campaign manager for a few months last summer. But he resigned after word got out about his sketchy business dealings with Ukraine. The kind where he got paid millions to advise the country's pro-Russian party. He was also in that meeting at Trump Tower with Don Jr. and a Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer who'd promised dirt on Hillary Clinton. And he's a focus of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to tilt the election.

So what's the latest?

Yesterday, we learned that late last month Mueller's investigators gave Manafort a wake up call by raiding his home. Even though Manafort's been cooperating in the investigation, the FBI apparently thinks he's a 'new phone, who dis' kind of guy and doesn't trust him. At all. They reportedly got a federal judge to sign off on a no-knock warrant. This lets them skip out on a front door tap, so there's no time to destroy evidence. They took off with some of Manafort's financial and tax docs.

theSkimm

The fact that the FBI got a judge to green light a search warrant is a sign criminal charges might be next. But many think this may just be the FBI's way of sending Manafort a warning, hoping he'll come around to helping them in their wider Russia investigation.

Skimm This

REPEAT AFTER ME...

They're not the only ones getting served legal papers. Yesterday, five transgender members of the military sued President Trump for proposing to ban them from serving. Last month, he tweeted a policy update that the US gov "will not accept or allow" transgender people to serve in the military, saying that it's too expensive to cover their medical care. This is the exact opposite of former President Obama's policy, which lifted the ban on transgender service members and even covered their treatments. Pretty much no one – not even the Pentagon – knew Trump's policy reversal was coming. And there were no details about how he planned to implement it. So far the military hasn't taken any steps to turn Trump's tweets into policy, and says they're waiting for more official guidelines from the White House. But these five service members are getting ahead of the official ban and saying it's unconstitutional anyway. So far Trump's team has stayed quiet about it.

Skimm This

What people are talking about…

Kenya. Yesterday, at least three people were killed as protesters clashed with police outside of the capital city of Nairobi. Earlier this week, Kenya hit the polls to choose a new leader. Results aren't in yet but the main opposition candidate says the election was hacked. And that the hack is related to an incident last week, when a senior election official was found tortured and murdered. This same candidate ran for presidentin '07. And questioned the results of that race too. This led to violent protests between ethnic groups across the country, and more than 1,000 people were killed. Fast forward to today, and this candidate looks like he'll lose again. So everyone's jusssttt a little nervous.

Skimm This

What to say when your friend locks herself out of her apartment…

You can stay at my place. Canada's saying the same. In recent days, the Canadian military has been putting up tents for asylum seekers coming in from the US. The camp's going up by the US border in Quebec and can fit up to 500 people. President Trump has been trying to crackdown on immigration to the US, both legal and illegal. So in recent months, there's been an uptick in the number of asylum seekers crossing over into Canada. And a lot of them are coming from Haiti. That's because the Trump administration has ended a program that the US gov started back in 2010, which takes in Haitians impacted by a major earthquake there. Canadian authorities say they've been so overwhelmed by the number of immigrants that many of them are being housed in Montreal's Olympic Stadium. But they're still saying 'come on in, eh.'

Skimm This

What to say to your friend who keeps losing service...

Can't hear you. Yesterday, the State Department said that several US diplomats working in Cuba have allegedly lost their hearing from a "sonic device". Wait what? Before 2015 – when US and Cuba relations were restored under the Obama administration – harassing US diplomats was reportedly pretty common. But things have been peaceful lately. Until this. US officials say the diplomats complained of symptoms starting last year. And at least two of them came back to the US to get treatment. The US is still reportedly investigating if this was an attack. Until then, they've said 'this isn't ok' and sent two Cuban diplomats in DC packing. But Cuba's saying 'it wasn't us.' Speaking of things on the State Dept's mind, yesterday, North Korea said it's seriously thinking of launching a missile near the US territory of Guam later this month. This came in response to President Trump saying he's not afraid to hit North Korea with "fire and fury." And after it came out that North Korea can now fit nuclear warheads in a missile. Tensions, high.

Skimm This

What to say when you hear Oprah's got a line of frozen food that's O so good…

THING TO KNOW

An improv term for not helping move the scene forward. You wimped out. Fair to say the actors on SNL didn't have that issue during their improv days. They're still on a break, but if you need your fix, "The Weekend Update" guys are getting their own show. It starts tonight.

PS:Our app lets you know when the big stuff is on, and when all your fave shows are coming back. Plus, every Friday you'll get our Skimm Picks for what to watch, read, and listen to over the weekend. Get it here. The first month's on us.